Divide et impera – engineers’ approach to training a young horse

Divide and conquer, a sentence made famous by the ancient Romans and engraved in the brains of computer science students when studying algorithms in the first year. They hear it until they never forget it again and apply the principle in all areas of life.

So, what does this mean (apart from what the ancient Romans thought it meant)? One takes a complex problem and divides it into many smaller partial problems which are solvable (conquerable). And the sum of these small partial solutions will then add up to the overall solution of the complex problem. Because the word problem has a slightly negative sentiment outside of computer science, we can also call it a challenge.

And how does this apply to horse training?

Baseline Summer 2014:

3,5-year-old horse, familiar with being led with head-collar, cleaning, washing, farrier, …

Target situation Summer 2015:

Riding relaxed and in harmony in all gaits, in the arena and out in the field.

A complex challenge, the goal is clear but the way to get there not quite so. Simply kicking it off is out of the question for two engineers, we needed a plan first and identified the following milestones.

• Horse can be lunged in all gaits with the cavesson (horse is familiar with voice aids and signals) including groundwork basics
• Horse is familiar with the saddle
• Horse is familiar with bridle and snaffle-bit
• Horse is used to the weight of a rider
• Horse understands riders’ aids and signals
• Horse trusts the rider in unknown situations (in the field)

Those milestones are already a first application of the divide and conquer principle, but we will take it a bit further. We break down a task into such minimal steps that the horse does not even notice it has learned something and shows no stress or anxiety. In doing so, we treat ourselves to a series of tiny successes that ultimately lead to the solution of our complex challenge.   

Here is a practical example of the milestone “Horse is familiar with saddle”

1. While cleaning and brushing the horse, lay a towel over the back (of the horse)
2. Take the horse for a walk with the towel on the back (beware of the wind, it could mess up your plans)
3. Put a light saddlecloth on the horses back
4. Put on a light blanket
5. Walk the horse with the blanket on
6. Use a light elastic girth with the blanket (dot make it too tight)
7. Use the light elastic girth with the saddlecloth
8. Lunge your horse in all gaits with the saddlecloth and the elastic girth
9. Replace the elastic girth with a lunging girth
10. Put a lightweight synthetic saddle on (no stirrups)
11. Carefully close the saddle girth of the light saddle (we prefer an elastic girth also)
12. Lead the saddled horse (walk)
13. Go for some extended walks with the saddle on
14. Ask the horse for trot with the saddle on (trot next to the horse)
15. Lunge the horse with the saddle on
16. Add the stirrups (keep them tied to the saddle first, just to get used to the weight)
17. Lead the horse with stirrups on the saddle
18. Lunge the horse with stirrups on the saddle
19. Let the stirrups dangle while walking
20. Choose a saddle that fits which you want to use for riding, try several different ones
21. Put that saddle on and take long walks again
22. Lunge with that saddle and stirrups on (tied to saddle) in all gaits

This way we divided our milestone into 22 small and stress-free steps if you consider a few parameters:

• We worked with Lola almost every day
• Duration for the individual training sessions – 10 – 15 min, only walks longer
• Exercising the horse was not the goal, she was in the field every day and in the walking machine
• There were always two of us (safety and feedback)
• We were training in a quiet environment
• On the farm we had experienced instructors whom we could ask for support
• Our agreement was – we will only start with the next training step when the current one seemed extremely boring to all three of us.

With this method, the starting process was very safe and relaxed for all participants and we were able to successfully participate in a young horse dressage test at the age of 4.  Stefanie and I had already gained experience in the training of young horses, so we were not complete beginners, but you always want to do it particularly well and super correct with your own foal… just like with your own children… maybe it was good that I already had to give up the perfection aspiration in horse training before the children came…

How do you feel about this? How do you make the learning experience easy and pleasant for your horse? How do approach challenging movements?

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